White & Case to cut up to 95 jobs in London

White & Case to cut up to 95 jobs in London” />White & Case is expecting to cut between 80 and 95 legal and support staff jobs in London as part of a firmwide round of lay offs that will see 400 people lose their jobs.

As reported by TheLawyer.com yesterday, the US firm has announced that up to 200 legal and 200 administrative staff from offices throughout its international network are at risk of losing their jobs (9 March).

The London office has embarked on a redundancy consultation that is expected to last for approximately 30 days.

The firm’s London head Oliver Brettle said: “You just have to look at the economy. I don’t think anyone would have expected conditions to change so dramatically in the last few months. We need to adapt the business to fit client demand and the shape of the economy in the future.”

This is the second round of layoffs at White & case after the US firm culled 70 associates primarily from its US network in November (17 November ).

White & Case closed a number of offices late last year. In November The Lawyer reported that the firm had pulled out of Thailand, closing its Bangkok office less than a month after shutting in Dresden and Milan (13 November).

In their report to WC’s management committee last year, McKinsey should have told the WC management to dissolve the partnership immediately, rather than reorganize the firm (again!). Now, the firm continues to suffer a slow, excruciatingly painful and very public death. The firm is in intensive care – on Heller death watch!

Well, hopefully the public misery of this horrendously bad firm will be over soon, and the partners at WC will get their just desserts – being forced to beg on the streets to make a living!

no idea as yet as to what areas etc…. they clearly do but are holding back at the moment. Those lower down and those faces that don’t fit will be the first to go in the “meaningful consultation”…… watch this space

It’s certainly unfortunate that Verrier has none of the qualities of either a don or a wartime consigliere (although the KGB notion is intriguing!).
Brettle, who does have leadership qualities, was only handed the poisoned chalice of London management very recently and is not responsible for the latest cuts.
But neither man has caused the current global recession.
It’s quite simple: White & Case has too many people for the times we’re living through. They are not alone in that, nor are they alone in dealing with it. Let’s get a grip.

The people posting below clearly need to pick up a newspaper once in a while or read The Lawyer more often. Have they not noticed we are experiencing the worst economic environment in living memory? What do they expect law firms to do? Nothing?
The reality is that there are very few law firms that haven’t had to cut jobs, or won’t have to make cuts of this nature. But that doesn’t mean that they are doomed, indeed probably far from it. With some of these postings, it is no wonder clients question how commercially-minded us lawyers are at times.

Hi Anon from March 11. You actually think Verrier is a highly trained operative from the KGB sent to destablize and destroy W&C? LOL. Not quite. You give Verrier far more credit than he deserves. Rather, my take on it is that Verrier is an idiotic buffoon.

“Time to Get Real”: We all read the papers. We all know that there is a global recession (depression??) right now and that law firms will have to restructure and adopt a new business model to survive. The question is – how does a particular law firm restructure to remain viable and which employees at that law firm do you layoff as part of this process?? It is clear that the cutbacks at W&C are not affecting the persons who should be affected the most – the cronies of Verrier who have no viable business plan or book of clients. Rather than truly cut the “fat”, Verrier would rather force a large number of associates and support staff to bear the brunt of the cost cutting measures so he and his cronies can continue to make their outrageous equity draws off the backs of the partners/counsels/associates who actually bring in business (even in these tough economic times). W&C (if it is still around) will need those associates and support staff who are now being cut when the deal flow resumes (brought in, I might say, by a small number of W&C partners who deserve to stay!). Then W&C (if it is still around) will really be up the creek!!! What client will want to retain it??

As someone cut in their last round – it may not be the end of the world for those that get the chop.
I may be lucky, but I have found another job and now work at a firm that is not run by fools and actually seems to care about its emplyees (rather than just PEP).
It is not a very nice place to be – and never has been – but you don’t realise just how awful it is until you are out!
My advice to those still stuck under the leadership of the likes of Verrier, Brettle and Barwise – take the offer of voluntary redundancy seriously – this could be the best thing to ever happen to you!
Get out before you become one of them!

The little KGB joke hits closer to home than you might think. Around the Moscow office, some of us had a nickname for Hugh Verrier, based on his unique management style – “Stalin”. W&C Moscow ran on fear, loathing and intimidation. Granted, the dictatorial style worked at the beginning, when HV came in to clean up the mess the previous managers had left behind. But in later years the Moscow office became a revolving door. It was hard to hold on to people for longer than a year or two – the threatening, paranoid atmosphere was one reason.

Seems like City lawyers work a bit like clock work. Wind them up and watch them go!

Has no one else noted how if something so obviously outrageous that no one could seriously beleive it, or the person making it is so illformed as to be completly irrelevant, is posted, the response is abolsulutly balistic. Lets try a few of the best: Slaughters in in the magic circle. City lawyers get too much redundancy pay and a new entry in the top 3, Field Grieb are a big ticket law firm. Was I the only one taught to ignore people who act up just to get attention?!